The Spilled Bean coffee house is located on the edge of Taylorsville, NC, right off highway 16. Featuring "French press"-style coffee and delicious baked goods, everything on their menu is sure to inspire your taste buds, if not your writing muse. Two small recessed rooms with comfy furniture provide a little privacy if you don't like the sunny main room. The Spilled Bean also provides free wifi, and they're housed in the same building as The Book Nook (used books), the Bear Paw (local handicrafts), and an Army Surplus Store, so you'll never be bored!

I'm pretty sorry to see there's not a lot of posters from North Carolina. We've become such a new and booming area for the arts that I'll have a hard time only listing a couple of hotspots. Just so I don't spam the thread, I'll keep the suggestions to my two primary residence.

Name of City/Town: Raleigh
Name of Hot Spot: Cup A Joe - Hillsborough St. and Mission Valley (Avent Ferry Road), two locations.

There's a lot of other places worth mentioning, but in my personal experience and in the shared experience of many other area writers, Cup A Joe is just a classic. Cup A Joe is one of the handful of independent coffee shops in Raleigh, and they're something of a gem. They have a strong history that ties together college students, aging counter culture, new coffee culture, and the blue collar. It's a melting pot that's always playing a mix of Zappa and indie music. Lots of writers will say this is their hang out--the coffee is good and cheap, the food is decent, and the atmosphere is unbeatable. It's a place that's rough around the edges and you always have a good people-watching scene. Plus they measure coffee by the sheer amount of espresso, and they're open to 10:30PM, so I get a ton done (well that's always true, too much socializing).

Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh - best independent bookseller. No competition. It's a bookshop for readers and writers. Their staff is great, their selection great, they have authors in several times a week. They give a 15% discount for readers' club members. Best place for new books in NC that I know of, and I get around. Quail Ridge also sponsors lots of groups, including book clubs and writers' circles.

Also in Raleigh, Reader's Corner. Used bookstore perfection - selection, staff, hours, prices, used book smell. This is across Hillsborough from the Nice Price Books and Cup a Joe, which someone referenced in an old post. Reader's Corner is for readers. You can meet other readers here too. Nice Price Books, although they have books, focuses on vinyl records. Should one ask a member of the staff about a book, one will likely get the response: "I don't really read." They aren't very nice, either.

No specific hot spot in my area of NC, I'm a hillbilly. But, the woods and rivers work great for me for writing. The river park in Cherokee has a few trees right on the river that are awesome places to sit while writing or reading (napping, whatever).